Need help from FD history buffs

My city is celebrating its 150th anniversary and the fire department has been ordered to participate in the parade (go ahead, twist our arms ). The good news is that the event sprung loose $1500 or so to get our 1925 ALF Type 75 in good running condition - it needed carb and magneto work. I also have have access to a hose cart that was used by our department ca. 1900 - 1920.

Here's where I need some help: I want to find a source for some period uniforms (patterns or ready-made) to wear in the parade. The bad news - I only have until 25 September to pull this off. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This isn't probably much help, but if there are any historical groups such as Civil War / Revolutionary War re-enactors (sp?) they can probably help you with uniforms.

We just celebrated 100 years this year, and for our city's homecoming we had an old 1910 era torrent to be marched through. Real eye opener for the public to see what we had "way back when" to what we have now, 2004.

Good luck in finding those uniforms!

**EDIT** Do you have any Jo-Ann's stores nearby? How about Michaels or something similiar? Generally they have large pattern books and they might have something in them that you could use. They generally don't take to long to come in the mail and the patterns will be able to be used for multiple sizes, etc.

Not sure what exactly you're looking for, but bib-front shirts are fairly period-looking for that time. We have red bib-fronts as our parade uniform, worn with the standard blue pants and dress uniform cover (hat). If you type "bib front shirt" in Yahoo, you'll get a number of suppliers. They tend to run $30-50 apiece.

Now in Victoria, BC. I'm from beautiful Jasper Alberta in the heart of the Can. Rockies - will always be an Albertan at heart!

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Re: Need help from FD history buffs

Originally posted by ullrichk My city is celebrating its 150th anniversary and the fire department has been ordered to participate in the parade (go ahead, twist our arms ). Here's where I need some help: I want to find a source for some period uniforms (patterns or ready-made) to wear in the parade. The bad news - I only have until 25 September to pull this off. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Instead of just going for a general "period" look, why not study some of your old fire department pictures, if there are any, to see what the uniforms worn in your area actually looked like.

Re: Re: Need help from FD history buffs

Instead of just going for a general "period" look, why not study some of your old fire department pictures, if there are any, to see what the uniforms worn in your area actually looked like.

Unfortunately we don't have any early 20th century pictures of firefighters in uniform - just equipment photos. Based on what's visible in those it's clear that our department used leather helmets with high eagles and storm king-type boots well into the 30's. I have plenty of pics from the 50's and 60's when the department went to aluminum helmets. I am fortunate to have some badges and buttons from the 20's and 30's, so knock-offs won't be a problem. (would you believe the buttons are the same as what's on our dress uniforms today?)

I am familiar with the bib-front shirt pattern. I think we'll probably use them for the hose cart setup if I can't find anything else, but I'd like to do dress blues for the ALF crew.